


After Midnight

by Starbat



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Azurrin Week, F/F, written for day one: bloodline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 19:41:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7654171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starbat/pseuds/Starbat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dragons can be dangerous, but no more so than the whims of someone that refuses to put herself first. </p>
<p>Azura and Corrin have a talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After Midnight

**Author's Note:**

> i wasn't sure if id write everything for azurrin week in one fic or do them separately, but since im not sure i'll be able to do all of them, i settled on separately. If i think i can do most of them i'll make a ficlet dump. 
> 
> anyways, i figured a lot of the stuff for this week would be dragon angst from Corrin's perspective, so i thought I'd mix it up a little and have azura thinking about her family history and what it means for her. 
> 
> And a little bit of talk about corrin being a dragon, because, come on, that's so cool, how can i not talk about it,,, anyways, thanks for reading, i hope you enjoy!

On nice, quiet nights like this, sometimes it was easier just to lie down and face one’s troubles beside the low thrum of cicadas that never quite seemed to die in the deep realms, time, fate or some other reality warp keeping them kicking seemingly all year. It wasn’t the worst, though; it at least served to remind Azura of her summers in Hoshido before everything went down. She was grateful for that much, anyways.

But troubles were troubles, and, as they tend to do, they were causing her a fair deal of late nights.

It was peaceful here by the pond. If Azura wanted, she could step a little closer and dip her feet in to let the water lap up past her ankles, but she didn’t, because she knew if she did she’d end up giving in to temptation and diving in entirely.

Azura sat with her knees pulled up to her chest and just sat there, with only the stars and the bugs for all her company in the world.

She wondered if, in the not-so-distant future, she would even have that much, and a hand moved instinctively to the pendant.

Every inch of the smoothed steel case around the gem inside, she’d memorized. Her fingernails had picked at the edge and every scratch, bump and design was a familiar feeling, the edges smoothed over by what must have accumulated into hours of running her fingers over the abused accessory.

How long had her mother had it before giving it to her? How long had the song she’d been taught been in her family?

How long had Azura been prepared for the ultimate sacrifice?

She wasn’t _stupid_ , she thought bitterly, fingers curling around the pendant with a sharp suddenness. Azura could feel herself being chipped away more and more every time she sang, every time the pendant glowed and water danced around her to the sound of her voice, heart pounding from the promise of pain to come later.

There was little to no escaping it – like it or not, her power would always ensure she become the sacrificial songbird, the first to die so that others could live. She would have to be willfully ignorant to pretend she was going to make it through the whole war like this.

Willfully ignorant, or Corrin.

Azura sat up a bit straighter at the sound of a – and she was just guessing here – twenty-something dragon shapeshifter hitting the ground after jumping out of a treehouse.

Corrin came to Azura’s side within a minute, the latter giving her a gentle nod when she silently asked if now was a good time or not with her too-expressive eyes. “It’s a lovely night out,” She said in a measured tone, when Azura did not break the silence first.

She closed her eyes. “Yes. It is.” Azura allowed herself to lean into Corrin, who’d sat beside her. The other girl jolted at first, but soon settled into ducking her head and allowing the action, flustered.

Even though it was rather hard to misinterpret a gesture like that, Corrin still seemed nervous. “I’m not, um, bothering you, am I?”

“No,” She replied cooly, though she tried to keep her tone bright enough for Corrin to know it just meant she was at ease. “You’ve never bothered me, Corrin. I’m just…..appreciating this. It’s peaceful.”

Corrin wordlessly gave her agreement and they sat in silence for a little while longer – longer than Corrin usually lasted, in fact. While they lie there and looked out at the lake together, she’d started to play with Azura’s hair, taking strands in her hand slowly and trying to keep them out of Azura’s face. She ran her hand through it when she finished, light, repetitive strokes, like she was liable to run away if Corrin laid her hand on too hard.

“So…are you having trouble sleeping, as well?” Corrin asked eventually, carefully sweeping another long strand away from Azura’s face.

“No,” She said softly, partly because she didn’t want to trouble Corrin with her problems and partly because she was too sleepy to really figure out what was bothering her anymore. “But you are? What’s bothering you?”

Corrin seemed embarrassed at that, and Azura regretted lying, just a little, but Corrin was different from her, so she sucked in a deep breath and told Azura the truth. “Sometimes I wonder what I’m going to do after the war. After everything. And lately, I…..I’ve started to feel that maybe it’s for the best if I go somewhere far away.”

That got her attention. Azura reluctantly sat up, moved a bit away from the warmth rolling off of Corrin in waves, and tipped her head to one side, concern lacing her voice. “Why?”

She flushed pink all the way up to her ears and avoided eye contact, instead paying close attention to the ground. “It’d make me sad to leave, but I just feel wrong staying.” She bit her lip. “Dragons are….dangerous. I could hurt somebody. Like how I hurt you.” Shame crept up the back of Azura’s neck. She’d thought Corrin had forgotten about that. “What am I going to come to when the war is over? Fighting can curb the worst of it for now, but I’m so afraid…”

“You didn’t hurt me, Corrin,” Azura soothed, reaching up to cup her face. She put their foreheads together and tried to ignore the makings of tears in the other girl’s eyes. “You haven’t hurt anyone when you could help it. Why would you think you’re dangerous?”

Corrin pulled away, looking reluctant. She still would not make eye contact. “Dragons are violent by nature. I may only be half of one, but it’s enough to warrant a little caution. I get impulses on the battlefield, to roar and thrash until I’m the only one left on it, and everyone else is just…” She made a ‘poof’ noise, and the gesture to go with it. “I don’t want that for my family, or my friends.”

She swallowed. “I don’t want that for you.”

Azura wanted to tell her off for that, or tell Corrin that she was wrong and Azura would stay by her side anyways, or ask her how anyone that could run their hands through her hair so gently and with so much hesitance could be anything less than wholeheartedly good and loving. But that was too many emotions for one time; too many things coming out of her muddled brain for one night.

She sighed and lay a hand on top of Corrin’s. “If you really do decide to leave, I will follow you. Always. I don’t want you to be alone.”

Corrin sniffled and didn’t say anything. She'd take that as relief and a simple acceptance of the statement. 

Azura and her family had a history of self-sacrifice.

But maybe, if Corrin’s blood did not guarantee violence, then hers did not have to guarantee tragedy.

She’d make a better attempt to survive this war – for her.


End file.
